What/how to feed?

[evening]

Hello,

I'm sure you all have heard this question a million times before... But what do you feed a young rabbit? I am getting a Holland lop in early May(Hooray!), and I need a little help figuring out what food would work best for my bun I have looked at Oxbow's young rabbit food and Zupreem rabbit foods. I have heard that juvenile rabbits need alfalfa in their food. Is that true?

Another question... How much food do you feed a young holland lop?

I apologize if there is a topic similar to this already! Thanks in advance!

 

[missyscove]

It's not much that they need alfalfa in their food as that they need more protein than an adult rabbit that is no longer growing. The usual recommendation for juvenile rabbits is to free feed them a higher protein pellet (free feeding is often interpreted as unlimited food, but it's important to have some idea of how much your bun is eating a day so you can tell if it changes.)
Most people also offer young rabbits unlimited alfalfa hay, but if your rabbit is getting a higher protein pellet, you could offer a grass hay (e.g. timothy, orchard, brome, etc.)

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Young rabbits are generally free fed or given a larger amount of food than an adult. Free feeding can mean that a rabbit won't want to eat hay and could make them fat if they are eating a lot. Giving a measured amount does mean you can monitor how much your rabbit eats and gets them used to not having food all the time. If you have a rabbit that gobbles up pellets, then measured feeding is better. But if your rabbit grazes, then free feeding can be good.

As far as what to feed, there are some good brands out there. I like Oxbow. I think Zupreem only have a timothy pellet, so might not be too good for a young rabbit. Alfalfa is good for young rabbits, but you can get away with using alfalfa hay if you don't want to use an alfalfa based pellet. Giving alfalfa hay is also good anyway, but I like to give timothy hay too so they get used to both.

For a Holland lop, an adult would get about 1/4 cup per day, but a young one would need a bit more. You could start with 1/2 a cup a day and see how that goes. You can adjust as needed.

 

[Tauntz]

Hope you don't mind my reply here as I am still a new bunny person. So if my input is incorrect my apologies. I always whenever I get a new "pet" ask the breeder or current owner what they are currently eating & the amount. I then buy before I bring them home the same foods they are currently on. I try to duplicate the food & care routine that they were used to in their previous home to make the transition to their new home with me as smooth as possible. Having the same food, feeding times, favorite toys, etc., just seems to help with the stress of a new home. Best wishes to you & your new bunny coming in May! You should be all set!

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

I'd go easy on the protein/alfalfa for a Holland Lop. Of all the breeds I've worked with, they are the most prone to digestive troubles as youngsters. For that reason, I feed grass hay to all my rabbits (all ages) and skip the alfalfa, even when they are young. Occasionally I'll see a messy bottom, but not nearly as often as when I fed alfalfa.

 

[Azerane]

Hope you don't mind my reply here as I am still a new bunny person. So if my input is incorrect my apologies. I always whenever I get a new "pet" ask the breeder or current owner what they are currently eating & the amount. I then buy before I bring them home the same foods they are currently on. I try to duplicate the food & care routine that they were used to in their previous home to make the transition to their new home with me as smooth as possible. Having the same food, feeding times, favorite toys, etc., just seems to help with the stress of a new home. Best wishes to you & your new bunny coming in May! You should be all set!

I'm going to pretty much agree here. The first thing to know is what the current owner is feeding the rabbit. That way, you can feed your rabbit without upsetting it's stomach (which happens easily with diet changes). Then if you want to change your rabbits diet, you can do so slowly over time without upsetting them. How young will your rabbit be? Unlimited hay should be provided, and a measured amount of pellets everyday. My rabbit is almost four months old and I'm giving him a small amount of fresh green daily which I am slowly trying to increase in amount and variety.

 

[evening]

Thank you all for the help I asked my breeder what she feeds her bunnies, and she said she uses "Purina show formula". I decided to look for another brand because I have never trusted Purina (or any other big name brands) to feed my pets. I think I'll wean my rabbit from the food he is on and try Oxbow thanks again!

Also, what do you guys think of molasses? What ingredients should I stay away from?

 

[ladysown]

generally young holland lops will eat up to 1/2 cup feed daily. THEY DO NOT need more than that.

Measure feeding encourages bunnies to make the best use of the feed they have better and encourages better digestive health. This is important with holland lops.

 

[whitelop]

Purina isn't a bad food, I don't personally feed it but a lot of the breeders/show people do on here and I think a lot of people have had good success with it.

I pretty much agree with everything everyone has said. I also really agree with the alfalfa hay, you don't really need to feed it. If you do decide to and your breeder hasn't been feeding it, you have to start them out on alfalfa really slowly because a lot of times it causes stomach upset. I gave my baby bun alfalfa for about 2 weeks, along with her grass hay and I only gave her two small handfuls a day of it. I wasn't feeding an alfalfa based food though, then I switched to an alfalfa based food and stopped feeding alfalfa hay. Plus people say when they babies eat alfalfa, its hard to transition them over to grass hay when they're old enough.
I also only fed my baby bun(who is a dutch, so different than a holland) about 1/2 cup a day, split into two feedings, morning and night. It caused her to eat more hay during the day, which is so important. Because as Kipcha said, too many pellets=less hay eaten.
Once my baby bun got a little older, I added two more varieties of grass hay to her diet, to change up the texture and let her kind of choose what she wanted to eat. So now she eats mostly coastal, with handfuls of oat and timothy everyday(they're like her treat hays because they're expensive oxbow)

Molasses is in most rabbit feeds. The only ones that I don't think have molasses is Sherwood Forest and Oxbow Beneterra Organic(and that one I'm not sure, I just sort of remember it not having molasses, someone correct me if I'm wrong) I think they use the molasses as a binder or something, but thats the reason most rabbits LOVE pellets is because rabbits have this massive sweet tooth! haha. Thats why you measure your pellets and limit them, to encourage more hay eating and then once its old enough to eat greens, you encourage green/herb eating. But no greens until its 12 weeks or older.

You mostly want to stay away from foods that have the colorful bits and the "treats" in the feeds. Like anything that says "fiesta" on the bag, is probably going to be a bad choice for the pellets. You want to stay away from whole corn kernels, I would assume that some feeds have corn in them, but they're mashed up into the pellet, not the actual whole corn kernel. They can't pass the skin of the kernel.

Hope that helps! And when you get the new baby, post pictures! We love baby bunny pictures!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Generally we free feed for six months and also give them alfalfa--at six, we cut back on the pellet and change them over to orchard grass. Still give them unlimited hay (grass) and you can start phasing in veggies and herbs at 4 months.

 

[evening]

Has anyone used the Sherwood forest pellets?

 

[JBun]

There are several people on here that feed sherwood to their rabbits. I'm feeding it to my rabbits as well, though I'm considering switching either to a different pellet, or their new concentrated pellet. A few of my rabbits had problems being on limited sherwood pellets. I had two start chewing their fur because they weren't getting enough nutrients on a limited amount. So I increased to almost free fed(which is what they recommend) with just a small handful of hay twice a day, but then one of my rabbits started molting, and because she wasn't getting enough hay and roughage, she started having a gut slowdown and small poops. So I decreased pellets and increased hay. So I've been debating whether to switch to the concentrated pellet, that is designed to be fed with hay, or just change pellets altogether. There are some things that I really like about it. The pellets are really green and fresh, they don't have added sugar and grain, and the ammonia smell from when I was feeding a different feed, almost went away completely when I put my rabbits onto the sherwood feed. Most of my rabbits didn't have any problems being on the sherwood food, and I may even have to keep two of my rabbits on it no matter what, as they don't seem to tolerate sugar and grain in pellets very well.

If you are interested, they do offer a free sample. You just have to pay for shipping. Also, because it isn't sugary like other pellets, it can be hard to transition some rabbits onto it, as they don't like the taste of it as well as their 'sugary' pellets.